Field of the Invention
The invention relates to chip package technology, and in particular to a chip module and methods for forming the same.
Description of the Related Art
The chip packaging process is an important step in the fabrication of electronic products. Chip packages not only protect the chips therein from outer environmental contaminants, but they also provide electrical connection paths between the electronic elements inside and those outside of the chip packages.
A conventional chip module or package having sensing functions is formed by disposing a chip on a printed circuit board. Wires are bonded from a contact pad region on an upper surface of the chip to the printed circuit board. Afterwards, the chip and the wires are covered by an encapsulating layer.
However, the thickness of the encapsulating layer cannot be reduced due to the height of the wires protruding from the upper surface of the chip. In order to prevent the sensitivity of the sensing region of the chip from being affected by the thick encapsulating layer, the side height of the periphery of the packaged chip module is higher than the height of the sensing region in the center of the packaged chip module. As a result, a flat surface cannot be formed. Moreover, since the wires are adjacent to the edges of the chip, they easily contact the chip edges during the bonding process which may result in a short circuit or a broken circuit, thereby reducing the yield.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for development of a chip module and methods for forming the same capable of mitigating or eliminating the aforementioned problems. As a result, a chip module having a flat contacting surface can be provided and the sensitivity of the chip module can be improved. Also, a more simplified and faster chip module packaging process can be provided.